From the Director's Desk

For the most of us it has been a great trail riding season. Many, many days of great sun and good weather this year to enjoy the trail systems on the San Juan National Forest. However, the leaves have all fallen, hunters are afield and the days are much cooler and shorter now. Time to find good low altitude Fall and Winter recreation. As many of you also know the BLM lands in and around the Four Corners Area can provide the cooler weather opportunities in a more desert-like environment.

It is important I think to highlight some of the SJTR Organization activities that were on-going throughout the summer that many of our membership would not be aware of that continues to support continued trail riding opportunities on the San Juan National Forest going forward. These activities/initiatives are as follows:

2.Members have worked on rehabilitating the Box Canyon Trail this year on both the West and East sides. It is now fully ride-able again. It has not had any work for over 30 years.

3.An over-grown section of the Morrison Trail had to have much of the overgrowth trimmed back before the forest took over the trail. In early season a SJTR team cleared Morrison of heavy downfall.

4.Most all trails in the system (Cortez/Mancos and Rico/West Dolores) were cleared early in the season by SJTR teams so that everyone could enjoy warm weather riding.

5.One SJTR Club Ride was organized in Echo Basin in August. 14 riders participated. Lots of doughnuts and orange juice got them going.

6.SJTR Staff officers continued staying involved in both the Forest Service Rico/West Dolores EIS and Hermosa Creek trail management processes which have strong potentials of impacting future single-track motorized recreation in these areas.

7.Several members continued the development of the Old Gold Run Trail connector that was promised by the Forest Service to be reviewed for opening to single-track recreation almost 6 years ago. It is still under study.

8.Two of your SJTR staff members continue to hold seats on the State Trails Advisory groups and vote in your best interests

These few activities underscore the amount of work and involvement that your SJTR Organization provides to help keep single-track motorized trail recreation “alive and well” in and around the San Juan National Forest system of trails.

I personally observed much more activity on our local trails this year from out-of-state riders. I met several groups of 7-9 riders from Utah, Wyoming, California and Arizona while I was out on trail work days. They all raved about the quality of our trail systems vs. what they have in their own areas. We are truly fortunate to have such recreation resources right here at home. I expect the out-of-state rider interest to grow by word of mouth.

I hope that this short review of some of the on-going work by your SJTR leadership team will encourage you to continue your membership and know that we are continually working on your behalf. Yes, we would like to have more club activities that we know you much enjoy. Yes, we are always thinking of more perks for members that we may be able to provide as an organization. Yes, we wish more members were paid up on their dues (currently less than 20% of our members have paid-up dues). All of these wishes take resources in both manpower and time to make it all happen. Please don’t hesitate to make any recommendations that you think would enhance our organization. We are always open to those ideas. A simple e-mail back to Brad Carey, our IS manager, will get routed to the right person for a response.

The SJTR Board of Directors much appreciates your continued membership and on-going support to help keep our chosen recreation available for now and for those coming up in the sport in the future.